Blog optimization

I really liked Chapter 3 RSS Feeds & Blogs in the book The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay because I was able to take that information and actually apply it at my work.  We have a blog about a new area we are building called the Dorothy Lumley Melrose Center for Technology, Innovation, & Creativity blog.  We would like to increase hits on this blog.  After reading chapter 3  I noted the ideas suggested for blog optimization and set a meeting with the managers of this project.  I went over all of the ideas set forth and we hope to implement them and then look at statistics before and after.  We are hoping to see an increase in hits and views based on these changes.  Stay tuned and we will see if it worked!

There is more than just Facebook!

This is a discussion of Chapter 8 titled Niche Innovators in the book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing by Paul Gillin.  I enjoyed this chapter because it discussed some of the other social media sites out there that people are using.  It also made me think about the future of social media and will it be more niche than it is now?  Nothing lasts forever, as the saying goes, the reign of Facebook will eventually come to an end.  It also discussed some social sites that I had not heard of and I enjoyed looking at some of these.  For example, I was not familiar with Gather, but it could be an alternative to Facebook  and although the site was fun to explore, it didn’t really seem to offer anything more special then looking at any other news source.  Some of social sites mentioned in this chapter I am familiar with and use often.  I am a member of several Meetup groups and I check Zillow frequently to see the value of my home.  I think we will just have to wait and see which direction social media will take!

YOU’RE NOT SOCIAL (ENOUGH) Discussion

The main component of the article, You’re Not Social (Enough) by Christopher Musico that I found, was the idea of focusing.  I would hope at this stage of the game companies and organizations understand that they need to be in the social world.  The community is discussing your brand there even if you do not have a presence.  I also liked some of the other items mentioned such as acting on information gathered on social media being very important.  Action in general is important in social media.  The community needs to see that there is someone actually present with them and listening to them and responding.  Also, there needs to be a lot of support in the upper ranks of your organization for a lot of the items discussed in this article to become a reality.  I love the idea of an organization’s leaders taking comments about their company found in social media and discussing them.  While reading this piece I was reminded of the Steve Jobs’ quote, “deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”

Steve Jobs

Interesting Youtube video on the importance of Social Media and CEO buy in.